Luminate Church (Covina, CA)

---

Luminate Church (formerly known as Covina Assembly of God) is a pentecostal church located in Covina, CA in the San Gabriel Valley, part of the Greater Los Angeles region. It is one of the top churches in attendance within the Assemblies of God, topping 2,400 in weekly attendance. Lee McFarland and his wife, Sandy, are the senior pastors of Luminate Church, and are the 14th pastors in the history of the church. Juan and Irene Brambila have been the lead Hispanic pastors since 2010. Worship is led by "America's Got Talent" finalists, The Edgar Family Band.

History

Luminate Church was founded in 1930 under the leadership of Rev. and Mrs. G.W. Harcastle. Since then, the church has seen much growth, including the construction of a 1,600 seat worship center in the 1990's and the addition of a Hispanic Ministry. In 2015, Luminate's then senior pastor, John Johnson, was promoted to assistant superintendent of the SoCal Assemblies of God network. Lee and Sandy McFarland, from Radiant Church in Surprise, AZ were voted in by the congregation as the new senior pastors.

On Sunday, May 6, 2018, it was announced that the name of the church would be changed from Covina Assembly of God to Luminate Church, as part of a project to open new campuses in other cities.

Hispanic Ministry

In 2010, then senior pastor John Johnson began a Hispanic ministry under the leadership of Juan and Irene Brambila in an effort to reach out to the large spanish-speaking community in the area. However, the Brambilas weren't the first to lead the spanish-speaking church; several pastors had unsuccessfully tried to direct the Hispanic Ministry in the past.

Luminate Hispanic Ministries is administered like it's own separate church; it is run independent of the way that the main church is operated, developing it's own style of leadership, programs, and services. However the Hispanic Ministry's senior pastor is still Lee McFarland, while it's lead pastors are Juan and Irene Brambila. The Brambilas deal directly with the ministry and are the main speakers at the services.

Ministries

Every weekend, Luminate Church has several multi-language services: three in english and one in spanish. Luminate has many different ministries and programs which meet the needs of its members:

• Luminate Kids (elementary)
• YouthLAJHigh (pre-teens)
• YouthLA (high school)
• YouthLA18 (young adults)
• Sunday Night LIVE (ages 50+)
• "THRIVE" Classes (Bibilial enrichment course)
• Luminate Live (livestream of most services)
• Discipleship School (Hispanic)
• Project 29:11 (affiliated non-profit organization with food bank) The foodbank's location is at the Luminate Church main campus.

Campuses

When McFarland became the senior pastor, one of his main goals was to open Luminate Church campuses across the Los Angeles area. On the same day that the name change was announced, it was revealed that Luminate would open 31 new campuses in each of the cities of the San Gabriel Valley. The church's logo features 31 rays of light, representing each campus.

Notable Guests

In 2014, "The Bachelor" winners Sean and Catherine Lowe attended service and were interviewed by McFarland. During the holiday season of 2016, Olympic gold medalist and "Dancing with the Stars" winner Laurie Hernandez was also interviewed by McFarland. During a showtime of "I Will Follow Christ," the church's former Easter performance, it was said that boxer Oscar de la Hoya was in attendance, however this was never confirmed.

References

This article "Luminate Church (Covina, CA)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Luminate Church (Covina, CA). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---